Robert Jones, Beauregard Parish Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Date: September 24, 2006
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Robert Jones
February 13, 1862
Author: Henry E Chambers
Robert Jones. Whether in his official capacity or as a private citizen,
probably no one in the Beauregard Parish is more generally known and esteemed
among the people than Robert Jones, clerk of court of the parish, and who has
had the very unusual honors of being elected three consecutive times to a
parish office. His has been a career of earnest endeavor, rectitude and kindly
relationship, and the sum of his activities constitute success, though he has
had some of the misfortunes that overtake men frequently in the course of a
long business experience.
Robert Jones was born near Sugartown in what was then Calcasieu Parish,
February 13, 1862. His father, William Jones, a native of Georgia, moved to
Monticello, Mississippi, as a youth and there married Caroline Jelks. She was
born at Monticello and was a relative of former Governor Jelks of Alabama, and
of the distinguished New Orleans physician, Doctor Jelks. In 1848 William
Jones moved to Louisiana, settling in Bienville Parish, where he followed
planting about five years. His next location was at Camden, Arkansas, and in
1859 he located near Sugartown in what was then Calcasieu Parish and continued
his business as a planter until his death, in 1865, when sixty-five years of
age. He was a Methodist. His widow survived him and passed away in 1884, also
sixty-five years of age.
Robert Jones grew up in the home of his Widowed mother, from an early age
taking responsibility beyond his years. He worked on the farm, attended
country schools and in 1882 at the age of seventeen began teaching. He taught
in rural districts four terms, following which for one year he had the
advantages of the Kentucky University at Lexington. On his return he again
taught two years in Calcasieu Parish. In 1889 he went to Brazoria County
Texas, and was in the drug business as the Jones Drug Company at Velasco, and
also was in the real estate business there. On his return to Calcasieu Parish
in 1892, he taught school for a time at Merryville. In 1896 under the firm
name of Jones & Nolen he engaged in the general mercantile business at
Merryville. From there in 1901 the business was removed to De Ridder. A fire
occurred in April 1904, destroying his Store and stock of goods. His insurance
agent had failed to notify or renew his insurance policies and for that reason
this fire resulted in a total loss and he had to begin his career over again.
From 1904 to 1909 he was himself engaged in the fire insurance business, also
dealing in real estate and timber lands, being head of the firm Jones & Pye.
Selling out his interest in that line in 1909, he established in 1910 the
insurance business known as the Jones Insurance Agency, which he conducted for
six years until his present official duties made it necessary for him to retire.
Mr. Jones was elected mayor of De Ridder in 1908 for the term ending in 1910.
In 1905 he had been appointed a member of the First Board of Councilman of De
Ridder, and was elected to that office in 1906. He was also a member of the
Board of Health and for six years was local director of the De Ridder High
School.
In 1916 Mr. Jones was elected clerk of court for Beauregard Parish, and was
reelected in 1920 and again in 1924. He served from 1908 to 1912 as a member
of the Calcasieu Parish Executive Committee. He was on the local draft board
during the World war, is a member of the Masonic Order, has been steward in the
Methodist Episcopal Church at De Ridder since its organization, a chairman of
the Board of Trustees and secretary of the Bible class. His recreation is
gardening, growing flowers, expending efforts not only for the beautification
of his own neighborhood, but the entire community, paying particular attention
to school grounds. Mr. Jones is regarded as an encyclopedia of information of
the local history of Beauregard Parish, and those in search of knowledge
concerning things and persons of the past are usually referred to the clerk of
court.
Mr. Jones married at Merryville, February 12, 1892, Miss Susan Elevia Frazar,
native of Hickory Branch, now Longville, Louisiana. Her father was Moses Cook
Frazar and her grandfather, John J. Frazar, who came from Hancock County,
Mississippi, in 1853 to Calcasieu Parish. Moses Cook Frazar was a farmer,
stockman and logger at Hickory Branch, and at Merryville was a merchant. He
was born in 1846 and died in January, 1925. For some years he represented Ward
6 of Calcasieu Parish and the police jury, his district being practically what
is now the Parish of Beauregard. He was on the police jury eight years, and
always a leader in the democratic party. He had served as a Confederate
soldier during the war between the states.
Jones is a Methodist Church worker and has given much time to civic
enterprises, being particularly active during the World war, during which one
of her sons gave up his life.
The oldest of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Jones was William
Walter Jones, who was liberally educated, being a student in Tulane University
and prominent in athletics there when he enlisted December 14, 1917, in the
navy. He was first assigned duty in the navy yard at Algiers, later attended
the radio school at Harvard University and was elected to attend the officers'
training school in the Boston Navy Yard. He was taken ill and died in the
Newton Massachusetts) Hospital, September 29 1918. The other children of Mr.
and Mrs. Jones are: Moses Cook, who died at the age of twenty years; Sam
Houston, a prominent citizen of Beauregard Parish, whose career is sketched
elsewhere; Varina, who married Sam W. Wallace, and has twin sons, Bill and
Bob; Phoebe, Mary Elizabeth, and John Paul.
Additional Comments:
A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 278-279, by Henry E. Chambers. Published
by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.